AT day 81 – The home of Ben and Jerrys
July 28th 2018
Cheshire – Seth Warner Shelter (mile 1600.2)
21.4 miles
Total miles: 1621.4
We had a plan to get going at 6:30am and be back on the trail for 7:30am. Of course this didn’t happen. I got up and checked my phone to see it was 5:30am and figured I could have another half an hour in bed and someone would have set an alarm. I woke again at 6:30.
By the time we had faffed around, and Professor, who hadn’t received the memo about the early start, had eaten breakfast, we were pretty late leaving the house. We stopped at Walmart on the way back to the trail to pick up a few resupply bits for the next couple of days.
I decided to look for a cheap fleece. I’ve not been cold, and the forecast isn’t for cold weather but I am worried about heading north and it getting colder. I want a fleece because the down stuff is pretty useless in this weather. It turns out that Walmart doesn’t sell fleeces in July. I thought they sold everything. So that was that idea out the window.
I stocked up on fruit snacks, Twix, cliff bars and another bag of crisps. I still had some peanut butter left and 4 packets of tuna I have been carrying for the past 4 days. After all that we got back to where we left the trail at 9am.
Jill and Chad were such nice people and it was a pleasure to stay with them. I ate a couple of bananas at the Walmart and I thought that would give me a good amount of energy for the climb up to Mt Greylock.
It didn’t. We walked through town and quickly back into the woods. The trail goes uphill through a meadow to begin and it was so hot going through there. The other three pulled away from me really quickly and I shouted "bye, and see you at the top". That first bit was rough. I always struggle more coming out of a town stay. At least my feet had deflated a bit and I could now bend my toes.
There was a good 7 miles of climbing ahead. To my surprise the climb wasn’t that bad. There were a couple of steep parts but lots of gentle bits where you could recover. I was moving along at a reasonable pace. The trail was a mixture of nice and rocky and rooty. There were a fair amount of muddy areas and puddles of water. It had rained in the night.
I passed a man in a blue shirt who asked me when I started. He started mid-March and he was very disbelieving when I told him I started in May. The last section up to the top of Mt Greylock is a popular day hiker destination. There is a big monument at the top and also a lodge. Peaches had hiked to the lodge this morning and then hung out at the lodge to wait for us and charge her things.
I got to the lodge earlier than I thought. Feeling good today. Feeling energised.
I didn't get any real food, instead I went for a raspberry ice lolly. Went to the toilet so I could liberate some toilet paper.
We carried on to an intense downhill. I kept up for a while. Then met Edward Shitter Hands and Tickle Me Elmo and the dog Dirty Girl. The downhill was savage on my knees I was trying to keep up but peaches was flying, even after her 34 mile day.
We stopped and took a break by a road and everyone caught up.
We carried on, although we were tempted to go back to Jill’s house and to the art gallery.
We walked through town, over the river and down another street and then back up into the woods. The first house on the side had a water hose outside his house for hikers.
The trail follows a beautiful creek. I could hear the thunder in the distance and it started to rain. The storm rolled in but the rain was not too bad. There were some big cracks of thunder. The trail wasn’t too bad until the top. A huge boulder field and rain. MA has a sting in the end of it. I got a bit lost with the blazes on the rocks.
I didn’t think the others would
be waiting at the Vermont border but they were which was nice and we hiked together to the shelter 3 miles away.
The trail was full of mud and puddles and muddy puddles. We got to shelter and it was so busy, but we found a place to camp. We ate outside which was a nice change and the mozzies haven’t been out yet. the guide says it’s a popular area with day hikes as it’s so accessible. There is lots of gunfire and it’s next to somewhere to do with ATV which I’m assuming is a vehicle of some kind and it’s so loud (turns out it means All Terrain Vehicle). Sounds like they are doing doughnuts or something.
Peaches heated some water for my other mountain house so I had a good meal this evening.
Chafe – things cleared up a bit. Armpit – cleared up now. Feet – much better but still sore
Sounds are really loud and trees are raining. I’ve had to do notes because I’ve taken an Aleve pm and I can barely keep my eyes open...